This past weekend I was away on a vacation with my wife in the Bahamas — it was awesome! Since I would be missing a Sunday morning at Life Church, I had already set up a guest speaker to speak in my absence. However, two days before speaking, my guest speaker had to pull out due to health problems. Suddenly I was without a speaker and Sunday was coming!
I improvised and filmed an entirely new message on the beaches of Paradise Island in the Bahamas. I was able to pull this off because of three things I had going for me:
An amazing shooting location
Technology for filming and uploading
Knowledge of the Scriptures
LOCATION: Obviously the outdoors were working in my favor since we were in a tropical paradise. It was easy and simple to find quiet areas on the resort where we could film segments. From the ocean shore to a rocky enclave, we worked within the environment we were placed in (by “we” I mean my wife and I).
TECHNOLOGY: Thankfully I had remembered to pack my iPhone 14 to film on along with a Wireless Lavalier Microphone. My iPhone offered HD quality video recording on location. Because it had noise cancellation embedded in the mic, I was able to stand along the ocean’s edge with the shoreline roaring yet my voice being able to be heard clearly and crisply. Because it was wireless, this also allowed me to move around on-screen and not be stuck in one position. My iPhone had preloaded video-editing software so that I could re-order the filmed segments and add a few little graphics. Thanks to Dropbox, I uploaded the edited film on Saturday afternoon and a volunteer at Life Church downloaded the finished product, dropping it into ProPresenter for Sunday.
KNOWLEDGE: Being a student of Scripture paid off as I improvised 14 minutes of live teaching at several locations for the filming. We need to always get into the Word so that the Word can get into us. 1 Peter 3:15 says to always be prepared to share the hope that you have. Because we are currently working our way through the Book of Mark, I was able to dissect chapter 9 and keep up with the calendar structure.
I love inspiring and pouring into church leaders!
That's why I formed the Fearless Leadership Network.